


A Cup of Love, with Hazelnut

by kamenrangerxvi01



Series: Earth-199999-Alpha Omnibus [26]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Art School, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Hollywood, Alternate Universe - No SHIELD (Marvel), F/F, Femslash, Girlfriends - Freeform, Love at First Sight, Meet-Cute, Romance, bioquake, skimmons - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:28:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 12,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28991457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kamenrangerxvi01/pseuds/kamenrangerxvi01
Summary: Daisy Johnson is an art student and aspiring animator who works in a coffee shop to help pay her way through school.Jemma Simmons is a world famous movie star who has come to Daisy’s shop to shoot a commercial.One cup of coffee is going to change both their lives.
Relationships: Jemma Simmons/Skye | Daisy Johnson
Series: Earth-199999-Alpha Omnibus [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1191670
Kudos: 12





	1. The Shop

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to my own beautiful girlfriend.

“Hi, Welcome to Golden State Rosters, can I take your order?” Daisy said on automatic. She’d had this job for more than two years at this point, so it just rolled off her tongue. She wouldn’t be surprised if she said it in her sleep, but never wanted to ask her roommates for fear they’d give her a hard time about it. But this was the cost of paying her way through college. Her parents wanted her to go to medical school like her father, but she had her heart set in a different direction. She wanted to be an artist. More than that, she wanted to be an animator. The first time her parents took her to Walt Disney World, they still had tour of the animation department in the Studios park. As she walked through and listened, she knew this is what she wanted to be when she grew up.

And when you want to be the best in the animation field, Cal Arts was the best school in the country for that goal. Can’t get much better than a school founded by Walt Disney himself. While her parents weren’t exactly thrilled at the idea of art school, they knew they couldn’t keep her from her dream.

Daisy was able to secure partial funding through grants, loans, aid and a small scholarship. The rest would be on her. So, after a few weeks of searching after she arrived in Southern California, she wound up working in this somewhat upscale chain coffee house near the school’s campus. It was in a mini mall a few exits further north, near the entrance to Six Flags Magic Mountain. The pay wasn’t all that bad, but it still mostly went to her school for her costs.

The customers on the other hand…

“I’ll have one tall no-fat latte with cream, an add shot, cinnamon powder and caramel.”

“So, that’s one small…”

“NO… a TALL… TALL.” The woman said in a condescending tone…

“Um... Ma’am…” Daisy said, trying to keep her voice in customer service mode “that size system is a registered trademark of Starbucks… we can’t call our products by those names without getting sued.”

“Well, they used to use those names here…”

“And we got sued for it…” Daisy said, holding up an empty cup. “Is this the size you want?”

The lady nodded.

Daisy punched the customer’s order in and looked at the clock. Her shift was almost over, and she could get back to her project for her class. It had to be done by the next week.

She quickly whipped up the order and handed it to the customer.

“What the heck do you call this?” The woman demanded.

“I made like you asked.”

“Where’s the cinnamon stick.”

“I’m sorry ma’am, we don’t have any, we don’t do it that way. We just put the powder in. That is what you said…”

“Well, if you can’t make it right, I’m not coming here again.” She said as she stormed out.

5PM mercifully came and Daisy punched out. It was Saturday. She had another shift the next day, then back to school.

“Hey… Johnson, a word.” The manager said as she headed for the back door to leave.

“Yeah, Pete?”

“Tomorrow, I’m going to need you bright and early.” He said “Very Early, like 5 AM early. Corporate called. They were supposed to be filming a commercial at another store tomorrow. They were joking about something, how they stole the idea from a Dunkin Donuts commercial with Snoopy. But the store they wanted to use had a fire the other day and the decided to switch to ours.”

“Snoopy?”

“Yeah, really tall fellow.”

“Wait… You mean Snoop Dogg?”

“Is that what they’re calling him these days?”

Pete was well into his seventies and was quite out of touch.

“Snoppy is a cartoon dog, Snoop Dogg is a famous rapper.” She said with a small sigh.

Daisy tried to think of what he was talking about. Snoop Dogg had shot a commercial with hidden cameras where he worked in a Dunkin Donuts to promote their plant-based sandwiches.

“So you’re telling me they plan to have an actual celebrity working in the store tomorrow?”

The old man nodded “Some new kid. I don’t follow your generations trends these days… Forgot her name. But I want you in bright and early to help. Our guest will work the front, you’ll actually make the orders. Corporate authorized time and a half all day for you if you’re willing to stay and help.”

“Yeah… sure… I can live with that.”

Daisy nodded, took a deep breath, went home to her tiny little apartment she shared with four other girls who were also students at the school. The others tolerated her because she paid her share on time, but other than that, they weren’t very nice to her. They were all performing arts students.

“Hey, Wisconsin… what’s bugging you.” One of them, Aly, asked.

“We’re supposed to be having a celebrity at my store tomorrow. I have to work all day.”

“Yeah, with your luck, it’ll be some twitch idiot no one’s heard about.” One of the others, Megan, laughed. “Good luck…”

“I got to see Robert Downey Jr last week…” the third member, Kate, said. She worked in a restaurant down in Los Angeles itself, and was always bragging about the famous people she met. Not wanting to deal with them, she went into her room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some of this was indirectly inspired by this video by youtuber David "Doggans" Ganssel 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0mVQ3Mmkx8


	2. The Star

Daisy spent the night making sure her uniform was perfect and was quite tired when she pulled up the store before dawn the next day.

The film crew was already there, getting everything set up. They were wiring the store with hidden cameras in the drop ceiling and some of the wall mounted light fixtures.

“Hello, Miss Johnson, is it?” one of the men asked “My name’s Paul Carter. I’m the producer assigned to this little adventure. I’ll be in out back in a trailer, running the cameras with the director today, so if you have any questions or concerns, don’t be afraid to ask. Is there anything you’d like to know right now?”

Daisy made small shrug and asked with a bit of deadpan “Do I get SAG credit for this?” She’d heard her roommates say that often enough when trying to negotiate work. After all, wasn’t everyone in this town after a union card?

“Who knows… maybe…” Paul said with a chuckle. “We’re going to need some samples first, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Sure… give me a few minutes to get everything ready.”

She was just about done getting the first batches of coffee ready when the front door opened. She was about to say they were still closed, partly on reflex, when she saw a tall man in a suit and sunglasses walk in first. He looked around the room, before stepping aside and that’s when Daisy saw her.

Jemma Simmons.

THE Jemma Simmons.

The beautiful young movie star was standing in Daisy’s coffee shop. Daisy realized Pete must be REALLY out of it if he didn’t know who Jemma Simmons was. She had been in about eight movies in the past six years and was in the soon to be released Sci-fi action movie “Star Slayer 2”.

Jemma has gotten her start as a teen actress on some Disney Channel show that didn’t last long, but had left enough of an impression she was cast in one of their Made-for-TV movies, moved on to theatrical released teen films and had recently begun to star in more mainstream movies. She’d been the “quirky best friend” in a coming of age Rom-com last year, but “Star Slayer” was going to be her first big time movie as a lead actress.

If it was anything like the first from two year prior, it was going to be a campy battle against space vampires… hence the name… but it had pulled in a sizeable amount of money, grossing around $750 Million.

Then Daisy realized… she was walking right towards her.

“Hi… You must be Daisy.” Jemma said.

“How… Do you… Know…” Daisy said, star struck.

“Oh… I asked ahead of time.” She said, sticking her hand out “best to get to know the people you’re going to be working with… is something wrong?”

“Oh… no… it’s just…” Daisy said as she shook her hand.

“Oh, right… the voice… I know. Hollywood… They constantly expect me to sound American… Nobody wants to let me be myself in this hell hole town…”

“Well…. I mean… I think…” Daisy stammered.

“Miss Simmons, good morning…” Paul called over, interrupting Daisy “we’re going to shoot some B roll and a few other things before the store opens. We need to get that all out of the way so we can break things down. While we’re breaking down, Miss Johnson will teach you how to use the register.”

One of the other crew members then handed Jemma a uniform on a hanger and she went into the bathroom to change.

The man in the suit who’d entered first was standing nearby, leaning against the counter.

“Can I get you something?” Daisy asked. She wanted to put the fact she’d be around someone like Jemma Simmons all day out of her mind.

“Large, Light and sweet, If that’s alright.” The man said with a nod. “Thanks…”

She went around, made his request and slid it over to him, pushing herself up onto the counter from the backside.

“thank you…” He said, raising the cup in toast to her before looking at her nametag “…Daisy”

“Yeah, that’s me, little old nobody Daisy.”

“Hi Daisy… I’m Phil.” The man said, offering his hand “Phil Coulson. I’m Miss Simmons’s security detail.”

She politely shook it.

“So… um… have you been working with her long?”

“No, only about a week. I actually work for the studio; I’m really only assigned to her for the duration of her contract to promote ‘Star Slayer 2.”

“You know… Now that I think about it… This explains the big box of promotional crap that came last week. I didn’t know we had a promo deal with that.”

Jemma came strolling out of the back in her new uniform.

“So, what do we all think?” She asked, turning in place like she was a fashion model.

“We’re missing one last touch.” Paul said. “Put this on like Miss Johnson has her’s on.”

The man tossed Jemma a company branded cap and pointed to Daisy, wearing the same cap and having her hair through the back in a ponytail.

Jemma did so, pulling her hair behind her and tucking it through the hole above the snap. She turned to Daisy.

“How do I look?” She asked, she asked with a smile.

“Uh… Great” Daisy said, giving two nervous thumbs up.

“Hold on a second.” Jemma said. She pulled out her phone, stood next to Daisy and took a selfie with her.

“Say ‘Twinsies” Jemma said with a smile the flash went off.

“That is so going on Instagram.” Jemma said. “Okay, let’s get this show on the road.”

“Wait…” Daisy said.

Jemma stopped in her tracks.

“Your… your nametag is on upside down.”

“Oh… Oh wow… thanks for that…” Jemma said, “Boy would that have been embarrassing. Reddit and Twitter would have had a field day. We’ll take another one later.”

They set her up behind the counter and shot a few takes of her speaking into the camera.

Phil stepped out himself and returned a few minutes later in shorts, a T-shirt and a baseball cap, still wearing his sunglasses. “I’m trying to pass as a tourist.” He said, “Seems less suspicious than looking like I’m with the Secret Service or something. Preserve the surprise.”


	3. The Moment

Daisy stood off to the side for the next half an hour, providing Jemma with cups as the ones she was using wore down or, in a couple cases, go dropped. Phil was in the corner, watching.

Given it had taken this long, Jemma’s voice began to shift. When Daisy first heard her, she sounded very “posh”, for lack of a better word. As time went by, her accent began to shift as she got more and more frustrated with her mistakes.

By this point, Jemma was just finishing a take explaining the company’s new line of flavors.

“And Salted Carlamel.” She said, fubbing “Damn it… Let’s try again… And salted Caramel!

She held the cup up to her lips to taste it, the turned to smile to the camera with a bit of foam on her nose.

“That’s a take.” The director said, “Take five, Miss Simmons.”

“Wow… this much talking makes me thirsty.” She said with a laugh.

“Want some water?” Paul asked from across the room.

“No, I’ll just drink this.” Jemma said, “Already holding it and I’m gonna need the caffeine.”

“Huh...” she said, taking a swig. She licked her lips “You know… this doesn’t taste like salted Caramel… doesn’t even taste like Caramel.”

She handed the cup to Daisy, who took a quick taste.

“Yeah, no, this is full on hazelnut” Daisy said, “Even has the hazelnut powder on top, see.”

“Hazel…nut…” Jemma stammered “Oh fuck! PHIL!!! HELP!!!” She threw the drink to the ground and started gasping and wheezing before falling face down onto the countertop.

“She’s going into anaphylactic shock! DAISY! CATCH!” Phil yelled from his seat. He jumped up and tossed her something. Daisy caught it. It was an EpiPen. Daisy rammed it hard into Jemma’s leg and pushed the button to release the medicine. 

Phil was quickly on the phone, calling for an ambulance, while Daisy got Jemma off the countertop, lying her down on the floor and grasping her hand to try to comfort the frightened woman.

“I called 911.” Phil said as he went towards the door “try to keep her comfortable. I’ll make sure they can find us.”

After a few minutes her breathing began to return to normal, just as the EMTs arrived.

“You saved my life.” Jemma said weakly, looking up at Daisy.

“Well, I… um…” Daisy began to say before the medics picked Jemma off her and loaded her onto a stretcher.

Phil gave Daisy a thumbs up as he ran out the door to follow his charge to the hospital.

“Nice work.” Paul said to Daisy as he gave her a pat on the shoulder “We’ll break everything down… maybe try again in a few days is she feels up to it.”

Pete was halfway decent enough to give Daisy the rest of the day off. She went back home to finish her project for animation class.

“Hey, Wisconsin…” One of her roommates, Aly, said as she entered. “You’re home early.”

“Well _Texas_ , I got to meet Jemma Simmons today.” Daisy said with a tone of superiority.

The three laughed for a minute before realizing Daisy was still standing there.

“No… wait… what… she was there? At the shop?” Aly said “Did you get to talk to her? What’s she like.”

Daisy relayed the story of the day’s events to them.

“Daisy, I will never joke about your job ever again…” Aly said slightly amazed, calling her by her name for the first time. The other two nodded in agreement.  
  


Things went back to normal for a few days for Daisy. Classes from Monday to Thursday to prep for her final exams, making coffee Friday through Sunday and more doing dancing stick figures on her laptop at night to finish her project.

“Hi, Welcome to Golden State Rosters, can I take your order?”’ Daisy said as her sunday shift was winding down.

“Hello Daisy.” A familiar sounding voice said. She looked up… The person was wearing a gray sweatshirt with the hood up, a hat on and sunglasses.

“Miss Simmons?” Daisy asked.

“Please… call me Jemma” the other woman said, pulling off the sunglasses. “I came to thank you. The doctors said it was quite the near miss. Had it been any longer before I got my medicine, I’d have died.”

“Well, um… you’re welcome.”

“You’re off in a few minutes, right?”

“How’d…” Jemma turned and motioned to a nearby table where Phil was sitting. He gave Daisy a small wave.

“I swear that man was in the CIA or something.” Jemma said “he literally knows everything about everyone… It’s kinda creepy.”

Daisy looked back at the man. She though he seemed nice, but Jemma was around him more and probably knew better.

“I’ll meet you outside once you clock out.” Jemma said.


	4. The Offer

Daisy finished her shift and found Jemma waiting behind the store with Phil.

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?” She asked.

“I didn’t want to talk about this in front of everyone else in the store.” Jemma told her “Here’s the deal: The premier for ‘Star Slayer 2’ is this Friday at the Chinese Theater and… I… would like you to come with me... Full VIP, the parties, the works.”

Daisy felt like she’d run out into the middle of the Interstate 5 and been hit by a big rig.

“Me… you want me…”

“Are you kidding, of course, you earned it.” Jemma said with a smile.

“All I did was stick you with the pen.”

“I was careless… I didn’t tell anyone about my allergies.” She said “If you don’t want to go…”

“No… I mean… I… Yes, I’ll go. I just…”

“I know this… is a bit of culture shock. When I was at my first big premier last year… wow was it nerve racking. But, I’ll be there with you and we’ll take it on togther… See you then” Jemma said as Phil helped her into her car and they headed back down to LA.

Daisy stood in the parking lot for a second.

“What the fuck have I gotten myself into.” She muttered as she headed for her own car.

“You look terrible.” Phil said, seeing Daisy sitting under a tree, picking at a sandwich. A day had passed since Jemma had made the offer to Daisy. She was sitting with her drawing tablet near the edge of the school grounds, watching the cars and trucks pass on the interstate, climbing into and out of the city to the south.

“Is it that obvious.” Daisy said, looking up “I didn’t sleep last night. I have finals coming up, and I just agreed to this without even looking at my schedule.”

“Mind if I join you?” He said, sitting down.

“Well, you already have.” She told him “Do you want something from me or are you here to spy on me?”

“I would be the worst spy ever If I just walked up to you like this… My skill set is more, shall we say, ‘Threat assessment’, ensuring the safety of whomever I’m responsible for.”

“You think I’m a threat to Jemma?” Daisy asked, pushing herself into a sitting up postion.

“No, no I don’t. You were there, so I had to look into you. It’s in the job description. Not that I needed to look up much, really… You’re a bit of an open book.”

“How so?” She said with a bit of attitude.

“Young lady, every one of your social media profiles is set to full on public.” He said, taking the wind out of her sails “All I needed to type in was your name and ‘Golden state roasters’ and I almost got your entire life story. You really need to be a touch more careful… Starting with not sharing ‘wow… I’m hung over!’ until you’re actually 21…”

“You sound like my parents.” She snorted. She stopped for a second. “you didn’t call them, did you?”

“I keep what I learn to myself…” He said “Speaking off… The reason I came to talk to you is because I can tell you’re nervous about this whole thing.”

“Thanks, Dr. Freud…” She responded with a tone “You are REALLY not making me feel better.”

“Look… when I first started this gig, I was completely star stuck by the people I was working with.”

“You don’t seem the type…” She snarked back.

He ignored her and continued.

“Now days they’re all ‘Hey Phil!’, ‘How’s it going Phil…’. I’ve gotten to know these people I looked up to as, well, people, and they have come to know me as someone they can rely on.”

Daisy shifted a little.

“Do you think Jemma might want to do that with me?” she asked him “Actually be, like, my friend? Like, I’d be in her squad or something?”

“Daisy… it might not seem like it, but I’m not psychic, I can’t read her mind. That’s honestly something the two of you need to figure out for yourselves, I can’t help you there. Though I will say you would be a ‘squad’ of one. Maybe that’s why she’s latched on to you like this. She’s just so lonely. That’s why I’m here, to encourage you to go because I’m quite sure she could use someone like you. You did what everyone like her wants them to do… treat them like a person.”

“Her, lonely?”

“What, you never heard anyone say, ‘It’s lonely at the top?”

“Never really thought about it that way.”

Phil looked over at her tablet.

“What are you drawing…”

“Actually… Jemma…” She admitted, showing him the half-finished sketch. 

“Look, um, I can’t stay much longer.” Phil said as he got off the ground “Places to be, things to do… Here’s the plan for Friday. I’ll pick you up at your place and bring you to the show. Miss Simmons will meet you there…”

“I though you were her bodyguard?” She asked with a confused tone “You won’t be there?”

“She’ll be going with a few other cast members direct from the studio; they don’t exactly need me for that. Fuck, I’m not even actually ‘invited’ inside, so to speak. I have to sit out back with car just in case.”

“That sucks.”

“Eh I’m used to it…” Phil said as he headed back towards where he parked “not the first time I’ve had to sit out back at the Chinese. The manager sometimes brings me some popcorn for me to munch on while I wait.”

“So… what time?”

“Sorry, forgot that part.” He said, stopping and turning back towards her “Does about Four work for you? Show starts at 7 and you need to do the carpet stuff, remember.”

“Yeah… that’s fine.” She told him, “Actually, if you don’t mind, can I meet you somewhere, like, the train station.”

“You do know I already know where you live, right?” He replied with a chuckle “Really, change your profiles... You’re careless.”

“I want to be able to have an out.” She said “an easy out. I want to be able to get home when I want to, which means I want my ride somewhere where I can get to it.”

Phil stood for a second.

“Fine… Five thirty at Union Station? The after party is at the Marriot on Olympic. If you want to leave it’s not that big a walk back to your car.”

“Deal.”

He nodded and went on his way.


	5. The Big Night

“How are you not hot in that thing?” Phil asked as he rolled down the window of his car to pick Daisy up.

“What did you just say to me?” Daisy fussed in reply as she walked over. “Did you just call me hot?”

“Yes, as in ‘it’s 85 degrees out and you’re standing in the sun with a jacket on’ hot.”

“I didn’t want people to bother me… this town is full of creeps enough as it is.”

She opened the door and climbed in the back.

“… I was harassed by a guy my first week here…” She told his as she unzipped her coat but kept it closed, “I can get snippy when I’m on edge. I’m sorry.”

“Eh… no biggy.” He said “gotten worse.”

Daisy was mostly quite for the drive between downtown and Hollywood. Phil turned off the freeway and called ahead to make sure he could get through the police checkpoints in front of the theater. Daisy looked off in the distance at the Hollywood Sign in the hills. She thought about what she was getting herself into. She knew that her dreams that sent her to Cal Arts would have eventually gotten her into the movie industry, but she never expected her first taste of Hollywood would be like this.

“Last chance to back out.” He told her as he sat at the light at Hollywood and Highland “Once this is green, I’m heading through that blockade.”

Daisy took a big gulp of air.

“I’m ready…” she said.

The light turned green and a police officer waved Phil forward to drop her off.

“I’m gonna leave this with you if that’s alright…” Daisy said as she pulled her jacket off and opened the door.

“Good luck, kid.” Phil yelled as Daisy climbed out the car. The noise from the crowd was deafening. The lights flashed in her eyes. It took her a second to get her bearings. The red carpet extended well out into the street; Phil having dropped her off in what would be a middle turn lane. She clenched her purse like it was a lifeline as she walked forward. She could tell people were staring, trying to figure out who she was.

Hanging from the main entrance of the theater façade was a large poster for the movie, with Jemma’s picture off to one side. Her character had jet back hair and was carrying a large sword.

“DAISY!” She heard Jemma call her name. Jemma came over to greet her, giving her a hug.

“Oh… I’m so glad you came.”

Daisy had a hard time taking her eyes off the other girl. She was wearing a deep blue ball gown, covered in sequins with a very expensive looking diamond necklace that sparkled in the flashbulbs. A large diamond hung below the others, towards the center of Jemma’s chest, drawing her attention.

“Miss Simmons, who’s your friend?” A TMZ reporter standing nearby called out, partly snapping Daisy out of her gaze.

“Everyone, this is my new hero, Miss Daisy Johnson.” Jemma said proudly “She saved my life the other day.”

She put her hand on Daisy’s shoulder, as Daisy just smiled and waved at the crowd.

Jemma quickly told them what happened, which got Daisy a small round of applause and some cheering. For some reason, it still didn’t make her feel special, it still didn’t feel like she belonged there. She couldn’t tell if they were just doing that out of some semblance of being polite or if they really were trying to congratulate her.

“come on, let’s get you away from this.” Jemma said, taking Daisy’s hand.

“That’s quite an interesting choice of an outfit…” Jemma said as they moved away from the reporters into the courtyard. 

“Oh… this… Yeah…” Daisy asked, running her hands up and down the front of the red and gold cheongsam she was wearing that reached about her knees. “You see… my Mom is actually Chinese… and I figured… you know… I’m going to the Chinese Theater, I’m a Chinese girl… I just… I just…”

She paused for a moment before admitting “It’s all I had on short notice and I don’t have much money so I couldn’t really go buy anything and I didn’t want to get them involved and I…”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed…” Jemma said, feeling guilty. She put her hands toward her chest at the same time, not making Daisy feel any better.

“What, about my ethnicity?”

“Oh, no, I knew that part already.” Jemma said, waving it off.

“Because…” Daisy began.

“Phil…” The two said together with a laugh.

“What I meant was,” Jemma told her with both hands on her shoulders “if you wanted to get something else, you should have said something, and I would have helped you with it… I mean…”

She looked side to side like she was trying to keep a secret “the only thing I’m wearing right now that’s actually mine is my necklace. Everything else belongs to the Studio.”

“I didn’t know that was on the table… I didn’t want to...”

“HEYI Jemma!” a man’s voice called, interrupting her. Daisy looked over and saw who it was; Andy MacLarson had arrived. The star of the “Star Slayer” franchise. When the first movie came out, people were comparing him to Mark Hamill when he first started playing Luke Skywalker. He was tall, handsome, ripped... He even did his own stunts. Jemma walked over and, much to Daisy’s discomfort… threw her arms around him and kissed him, quite hard, on the lips, drawing noise from the crowd.

After putting on their little PDA show for the gossip magazines, Andy and Jemma walked back towards Daisy.

“Is this who I think it is?” Andy asked, with his arm around Jemma’s shoulder.

“Yep!” Jemma responded excitedly “Andy, this is Daisy. Daisy, I’m pretty sure you know who this is.”

“Hi there. It’s so nice to finally meet you. Jemma told us all about you.” He said, shaking her hand. “Thanks for that. If it been me, I’d probably would have fumbled with it for half an hour, eh?”

“Yeah… Hi. It’s a pleasure.” Daisy forced out.

Drake Porter, who plays Andy’s character’s best friend and partner in their character’s jobs, walked up next to her.

“So, we finally get to meet the hero of Santa Clarita.” He said, introducing himself to Daisy.

Jemma then pulled Daisy by the arm, led her in the front doors and through the crowd of VIPs waiting in the lobby, introducing her to the other actors and crew members. It was odd for Daisy. People she had assumed were nice were cold towards her, while the actor who played the sadistic, tyrannical king of the space vampires practically bear hugged her when he found out who she was.

“Jemma is as sweet as they come. She’s like everyone’s kid sister. If anything happened to her, it would have crushed us all.” He told her.

“You’re welcome…” Daisy squeaked out as Jemma yelled at the man to stop squeezing her to death.

It was time for the show to begin. Everyone was led inside to the theater. Jemma said Daisy down next to her with Andy on Jemma’s other side and Drake taking the seat next to Daisy.

Jemma’s character was a warrior of the space vampires, who falls in love with Andy’s character, slowly making a ‘heel-face turn’ to become his ally against her people’s attack on an Earth colony world. It was very much your standard sci-fi shlock; a big budget, special effects laden popcorn muncher, and while Daisy did enjoy herself, she couldn’t help but occasionally glance over at Jemma and Andy sitting next to her. She spent the slower sections of the movie wondering just what their relationship was. The duo spent nearly the entire time whispering to each other about the various details, the effects, things that had happened while filming. They were smiling and laughing constantly, making Daisy shuffle in her seat.

The climax was over, and Jemma’s character lay dying on the deck of the hero’s ship, bleeding from her wounds from the final battle, cradled in Andy’s arms.

The pair exchanged “I love you”s and Jemma fell limp, dying as Andy screamed her character’s name between sobs.

Drake leaned over and whispered towards Daisy “took her about 20 takes just to get one where she kept still long enough. She can _NOT_ play a corpse to save her life.”

“I heard that…” Jemma hissed back at him “And, for the record, Drake here had a panic attack because he thought he was locked in his trailer and we’d all gone home for the night… Because he forgot the door opens outwards!”

The movie ends, the credits begin to roll, and everyone starts to get up.

“Hold on… hold on!” Jemma yells. The credits end, the lights don’t come up, and the camera returns to the spot where the heroes had buried Jemma’s character. Suddenly, a hand erupts from the grave, followed by the rest of her. “Don’t think you are getting rid of me that easy my love…” she said to the camera.

“That’s right! I’m gonna be in the next one!” Jemma yelled.

Andy, Drake and the others began to give Jemma a fuss for not telling them about the post credits scene, giving Daisy a chance to get up and leave.

“Where are you going.” Jemma said, noticing she was leaving and grabbing Daisy by the arm “I told you this was the full package deal, and you are coming with us to the after party.”


	6. The Heartbreak

Jemma took Daisy by the hand and led her outside where a limo was waiting for the group. She also took Andy’s hand on the other side as they walked over to the waiting car. Andy and Jemma took the seats at the back while Daisy was plopped next to Jemma on the first wall seat. Daisy said quietly for the ride to the party, every so often trying to grab a glance at Jemma.

The party was back closer to where Phil had picked her up, a hotel near the Staples Center with not one, but two roof top pools, one higher than the other on different sections of the building. The one they were going to was about 25 floors up.

Daisy was holding on to her purse with a death grip to try to keep calm as she walked out onto the poolside area. She made right for the far corner, away from some hedges.

“Cocktail, miss?” A waiter asked as she stood by the railing.

“Um… I… can’t… I don’t turn 21 for another few weeks and I…”

Jemma walked up, took two drinks off the tray and shooed the man away before handing the glass to Daisy.

“There we go, he didn’t serve you alcohol, I did.”

“Okay then…” Daisy said, giving in and taking a swig.

“That’s the spirit.” Jemma said, taking a drink from her own glass. “We’re not going anywhere for hours. One is not going to hurt, and worse case, I’ll just tell Phil to take you home.”

“Good, because he has my coat.”

Some of the others came over to join them. Drake had one of the other actresses from the movie on his arm, while Andy stood next to Jemma.

“So… Daisy, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself.” Drake said as the group looked out over the city.

“Well… I’m from Milwaukee… I’m just wrapping up my Junior year at Cal Arts… my plan… well my dream, is to become an animator. Ever since I was a little girl I loved to draw, to create and… well. What I’d like the most is to get a job at Pixar. 3D animation is my specialty.”

“Well…” Jemma said, scanning the crowd “I think… Yep, I think I see Pete Doctor himself over there taking to… I think that’s Mr. Spielberg? Can’t tell, back of his head… why don’t we go talk to him. See if we can’t get you a foot in the door.”

Daisy remembered where she was. Knee deep in Hollywood brass.

“I mean… I… I’m…” Daisy said as Jemma began to drag her toward the two directors. “This might not be the best time…”

“Oh relax, people wheel and deal at these parties all the time.” Jemma told them…

An older gentleman stepped up towards them.

“Miss Simmons, do you have a moment.”

“Oh… Mr. Barnes…” Jemma said, stopping. “Daisy, this is Mr. Barnes, he’s the head of the Studio.”

“Pleasure, my dear.” He said, offering her his card “Steven J. Barnes. If you ever need help with anything.”

He turned to Jemma while Daisy examined the card.

“My secretary has some paperwork that needs to be handled for your insurance about your hospital stay… Could you swing by the office on Monday and clear it up.”

“Of course, sir.” Jemma said. “Oh, and I’m sorry to hear about your father.”

“Thank you… He was a good man… We’re losing more and more men like him with time… Soon even World War II will be just a thing we read about… Then again, you two ladies are what? Twenty-one? You don’t even remember 9/11. Wow… am I getting old… Speaking of which, it’s probably time for me to head home…”

“Have a good night, sir, and thank you.” Jemma said.

“Jemma… why is everyone being so nice to me?” Daisy asked, flatly “I happened to be in the right place, at the right time. Phil knew enough to throw me the EpiPen because I was right next to you. He seemed to know what was going on, and yet he’s downstairs with the car!”

“Look, Daisy… The thing is… I…”

“Hey, Jemma, come over here!” An older woman called out from the edge of the pool at the far side of the deck.

“I’ll explain everything in a minute… That’s Alex, one of the producers. Wait, right here for me, please?”

Jemma joined Alex, Andy and Drake on a small platform at the end of the pool.

“Well, I think tonight has be a great success.” Alex said into a microphone so everyone could hear her “The first reviews are coming in and so far I think we’ve got a hit on hands people! And from what I can tell, it’s all thanks the excellent chemistry of our leading couple right here!”

The crowd applauded Jemma and Andy and Alex handed Jemma the microphone.

“I would just like to say thank you for taking a chance on little old me. Moving on from the teen movie scene into… more mature acting is a rough transition, but… hey… I had all of you to back me up. I look forward to more adventures together. To Star Slayer 3!”

“To Star Slayer 3!” Andy yell as a toast, before giving Jemma another kiss. They turned back towards the crowd and Daisy saw Jemma’s eyes go a little wide as Andy’s hand moved down her back.

Something snapped inside Daisy. She couldn’t bare to look any longer. This was just too much for her.

“Goodbye Jemma…” She said as she turned, kicked off her heels and started to run back towards the entrance. She jumped in the elevator and in her stocking feet, rand down the street.

Daisy was already down at street level and at least a block and a half away before she heard Jemma behind her calling her name.


	7. The Kiss

Daisy was in her spot, under her tree. Her eyes were red. She’d be crying for hours at this point. Her feet hurt from running in the street without her shoes on. Ever since she saw Jemma and Andy together on the stage, she’d been bawling. How she got this far without crashing her car was beyond her.

She heard a twig snap behind here.

“Go away Phil. Just leave me my coat and get the fuck out of here. I never want to see her or you EVER AGAIN!”

“Phil isn’t here…” She heard a voice answer. She looked up and saw Jemma, still in her dress, standing in front of her.

“How’d you find me?” Daisy asked through her sniffles.

“Phil told me that you liked to sit in this spot.”

“So… What do you want?”

“I want to finish our conversation.” Jemma said. “I promised you the truth… and I keep my promises.”

“It’s just… I’m just some girl from the Midwest and I’ve never really had anyone be nice to me since I got here…”

“Daisy…” Jemma tried to interrupt.

“The fact is I wasn’t sure where this situation was going, I completely misread it, I saw things that weren’t there and…”

“Daisy!” Jemma said louder.

“And it was wrong of me to assume things about you…”

“I’M GAY!” Jemma interjected loudly, her voice practically breaking.

“And if you think…” Daisy stopped as the words Jemma had just yelled processed in her mind. “You’re what...?”

“I’m gay.” Jemma told her, trying to keep herself from losing it two.

“you are?” Daisy asked. Her heart skipped beat after beat. “You like girls?”

“Yep… and I’m pretty sure you like girls too. Pretty sure you like me…”

“Me…?” Daisy asked, her emotions a tangled mess “Let me guess… Phil again?”

“I don’t need Phil to tell me the obvious. The glances. The stuttering around me. It’s all there. I particularly like how you have yet to take your eyes off my cleavage tonight… You flew off in a jealous rage before I got a chance to tell you… I should have told you. I forgot till it was too late…”

Jemma took the other girl’s hands and sat herself down in front of her.

“Here’s the thing. First off, Andy already has a girlfriend back in Saskatchewan. Kelly, lovely girl, hell of a cook. So, a couple weeks back … Andy and I were called into the producer’s office. Alex, the lady from the party? She says that the two of us should try one of those stupid, cliché Hollywood faux-mance for the sake of the movie. We pretend to be a couple for a few weeks, draw interest in the movie and they quietly drift apart so it was like we were never a thing in the first place.

“Andy said he ran it past Kelly and was fine with it, I should have questioned that, but I didn’t. What I did do was I straight up told them I was gay then and there… they told me ‘oh, it was just more acting’, nothing more, nothing less. I thought about it, and because I hadn’t met you yet, I figured it was better than nothing and would probably help sell the movie. I’m tired of playing cutesy, kiddy roles, I want people to take me seriously.

“Tonight, was the first night we did anything, and I went along with it… Until he started to get a little TOO into it. Turns out the whole thing was HIS idea… fucker couldn’t accept I was gay and wanted to dump Kelly for me. He thought he could ‘straighten me out…”

“Then why the act?”

“Because he’s got an ego. Fuck if he needs any more of a reason to do something so stupid. So, after you left, and I couldn’t find you, I ran straight upstairs and smacked him so hard that he fell in the pool. I screamed at him that he’d ruined my chance with you… and that’s the point where I told everyone else about how I felt about you… and let’s just say if Andy wants to keep his job and his girlfriend, he’s going to be extra nice to us all… Drake is making sure of that.”

Daisy laughed at the thought.

“Daisy…” Jemma continued “I don’t love him… I don’t love anyone in this world but you.”

“Me… You love… Me?” Daisy asked.

“This has to be a dream…” Daisy thought to herself as she stood there. Here was a beautiful, famous, rich woman who says she’s fallen in love with her.

“Yeah.” Jemma said, “Why else did I ask you to be my date tonight?”

“Date… I was you date?” Daisy began to hyperventilate “We were on a DATE? That was a DATE! I WAS YOUR DATE!”

“Breathe, Daisy… Breathe… I know I said guest… but… I didn’t want to make you feel pressured and I’m sorry I did because the whole thing backfired. By not coming clean to you I made it worse. By letting work make my decisions, I made it worse. Everything I try, I make worse... If I can be honest, I am absolutely terrible at talking to girls I really like.”

Daisy had calmed down by this point.

“I don’t know, you seem to have done a pretty good job.”

“You would be my first real girlfriend… If you’ll have me.”

Jemma looked Daisy in the eyes and took both her hands.

Daisy took a deep breath and squeaked out “YES!”

The two women pulled themselves together and shared their first kiss. “Night’s looking a lot better now.” Jemma said as they pulled apart.

“Better? It’s 2:30 in the morning.”

“Darling…” Jemma said with a bit of sass “This is LA. If you’re not staggering in the door as the sun’s coming up, then you have not had a night out in this town.”

“But I have work… crap, I have work in like six hours…”

“Fuck work, you’ve got me. Monday morning I’m calling the school and paying your entire remaining tuition. Everything. You’ll never have to go back to that stupid coffee shop again.”

“Everything? You’d do that… for me?”

“I made $20 million over the last few years, not counting whatever I end up getting for this whole ‘Twilight meets Star Wars’ BS.” She said, “I can afford your tuition, I checked. All you’ve got to do is promise you’ll work hard and graduate. And then you can pay me back…”

“Pay you back?”

“Sure, with flowers, and diners and just being a good girlfriend and making me feel good.”

Jemma offered Daisy her hand again.

“Come on, let’s go have some fun, just you and me.”

Daisy looked at her hand, smiled, took it and got up.

“Shouldn’t we change first?”

“you’re probably right.”


	8. The Video

Daisy opened the door to her apartment. He three roommates were still awake, chatting away.

“Well, look who…” Aly began to say before Jemma came in behind her.

“Hi, you must be Daisy’s friends…” Jemma said. She had a bag with a change of clothes she kept in her car.

“Eh, I wouldn’t really call them my friends.” Daisy said as she watched the three of them go into shock. She hadn’t told them where she was going.

“I’m gonna go in my room and grab something, then you can use it to get out of that while I use the bathroom.” Daisy said to Jemma.

She ran into her room.

“Soo…. You ladies also go to Cal Arts?” Jemma asked. None of the girls answered her as Daisy came back out with jeans and a T shirt in her arms.

“Okay, you go on right in there and take your time.” Daisy told her. Jemma nodded and the two went in different directions, re-emerging into the common area a few minutes later in their street clothes, with Jemma carrying her dress in her arms.

“I’m going back out again.” Daisy said to the three girls, taking Jemma’s hand and giving her a kiss as they walked out of the apartment.

“Did that just happen?” Megan asked “Did Wisconsin just hook up with a movie star?”

“so… where do we go first?” Daisy asked as they got back into the car.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry.” Jemma said “Any thing open late night around here?”

“I think there’s a 24-hour McDonalds down the road by the 5.”

“Perfect.” Jemma said. “I NEED a cheeseburger.”

Upon arriving at the restaurant, Jemma insisted on ordering and paying, so Daisy went and found a table. She pulled out her phone and started searching for anything from the party that might have made it onto social media. And it was just her luck… someone recorded the whole thing.

As Andy was speaking, Jemma, like she said, marched right up to the man and smacked him so hard he lost his footing and fell into the water.

“You STUPID son of a BITCH!” She screamed so loud Daisy had to quickly lower the volume “You fucking blew it for me. You just had to get handsy you CREEP…”

“Jemma, what the hell has gotten into you.” He asked as he climbed out the pool.

“Three guesses, Casanova…”

“Jemma… what’s the matter? Let’s talk about this.” Drake asked, trying to defuse the situation.

“This whole romance thing, between Andy and I, it’s a farce…” She yelled. “It’s not real… Fuck… ANDY… I HATE YOU!”

She walked over and grabbed the microphone. “Look, everyone, I have something to confess… The truth is I’m a lesbian… and that girl I had with me tonight… Daisy… I brought her and asked everyone to be nice to her and I did all this to try to impress her because I’m madly, insanely in love with her. I went along with this stupid little ‘lovey dovy couple’ act, which the more I think about it was probably Andy’s idea to try to get into my pants even though I TOLD HIM I’M GAY, I’m sure Kelly is going to like that part… But I did it because I’m as aware as any of you are how fragile our success is… especially when you’re like me, trying to get people to take you serious when you’re known for kiddy shit.”

“Seriously? Man, that’s some Bullshit.” Drake said, looking at Andy.

At this point, Jemma also started to cry, causing Daisy to sniffle a little again as she watched.

“But if I have to choose between that beautiful, incredible woman and ever getting the chance of working in this town again… Daisy wins… Daisy will always win… Because when it comes down to it…”

She took a deep breath.

“what’s the point of all this if I can’t share it with her… I’m out of here and nobody try to stop me if you know what’s good for you!”

She marched off, a look of anger on her face. Whoever was filming this kept going.

“Dude… What the fuck is wrong with you?” Drake asked Andy as the other man tried to dry off.

“What… can’t a guy get some tail?”

“After she told you straight up she’s into chicks? Are you insane?”

“Ladies can’t resist me…” Andy said with a smug look “all she needed was the right convincing.”

“You believing your own hype now? Go after her an apologize. NOW.”

“Apologize for what?” Andy asked “Trying to show her a good time?”

“You’re gonna get your ass down there and apologize or I’m going to toss your ass off this pool into that one!”

“No… you’re not. You’re too much of a coward.”

“Fine… How about instead I tell them all about Jerry?”

That apparently got Andy’s attention.

“You wouldn’t…”

“Watch me.” Drake said as he reached for the microphone, only for Andy to tackle him, with both men falling into the pool. The wave came towards who ever was filming, causing them to turn off the video.

“What are you looking at?” Jemma asked as she sat down across from her with their food tray.

“Oh… Nothing… Just a clip my _gorgeous_ new girlfriend being a total badass…” Daisy said. “Who’s Jerry?”

“Andy’s stunt double.”

Daisy sat up “Hold on a minute… are you telling he _doesn’t_ do his own stunts?”

“You kidding?” Jemma said as she chewed on a French fry “The man is a lazy fucking idiot.”

Jemma spent their meal dishing on Andy’s oversized ego and everything he put the rest of the cast through.


	9. The Beach

It was about 3:30 by the time the pair finishes eating and were back on the road.

“So… now what?” Daisy asked.

“There’s something I’ve always wanted to do.” Jemma said. “You’ll see when we get there. Maybe you should close your eyes for a few minutes.”

Daisy soon found herself in a large room. Jemma was standing before her, but every time she reached for her, a bit of the floor where she was standing moved, causing Jemma to rise into the air, where Daisy couldn’t get to her.

Daisy kept calling Jemma’s name, only for the noise of a crowd to drown her out.

Daisy felt herself get jolted awake

“Sorry… sorry…” Jemma said. “Jackass cut me off.”

“It’s alright.” Daisy told her, putting her hand on the other girl’s leg.

“You sounded like you were dreaming about me?”

Daisy told her what she had dreamed.

“I understand.” Jemma told her when she finished “You feel like you don’t deserve me. Well… You do. I love you, and that’s all the matters.”

After a quiet rest of the ride, Jemma parked the car at the beach in Santa Monica by the pier.

“I’ve always wanted to frolic on the sand under the moonlight with _my_ dream girl…” Jemma said

Daisy just smiled and said “lead the way.”

The two women spent hours running around, playing, lying on the sand, sharing sweet kisses and I love you under the stars.

“Penny for your thoughts.” Jemma asked as the pair at on a concrete block at point where the pier ended at Ocean Ave. The first rays of sunlight were starting to crest the peaks of the mountains to the east.

“New day, new love…” Daisy told her, putting her hand on Jemma’s knee and leaning in for a kiss.

“Well, to be honest, there has been something that’s been bothering me, the last couple hours…” Daisy said as they leaned back.

“What’s that?”

“If you don’t think I should be going back to work… are you going to pay my rent as well?”

“Nope… You’re not going to need to pay anyone anything… _Because_ I just got a SWEET deal on a beach house in Malibu…” She said, taking Daisy’s hands “And I would want nothing more right now than to share it with you.”

“You want me to move in with you? Right now? Already?” Daisy said. She stopped for a second “I thought the stereotype with being a lesbian was one of us brings the moving van on the SECOND date…”

“Daisy… come on… You really want to spend five more minutes living under the same roof with those snobs? I knew girls like that back home in Sheffield. From what you’ve told me, I can tell they are nothing if not evil. Tell you what. I’ll take you to see and you can make your decision then. Alright?”

Daisy nodded and Jemma led her back to her car.

“Mom… Dad… hi…” Daisy said over the phone as they drove along the coast. She had decided to call them and tell them the news, the two hour time difference meant they’d definitely be up.

“Nice to finally hear from you…” Her father said with a bit of a tone. “Is there a reason you’re calling this early on a Saturday?”

“I have some news…” Daisy began to say.

“You’re quitting that art school and coming home to start studying medicine?” her father said with an excited tone

“CAL!” Jaiyang snapped over the line at her husband “Go ahead, Daisy.”

“I’ve meet someone…” Daisy said, looking at Jemma and smiling “I’ve got a girlfriend.”

“Oh…” Cal said… “Okay…”

“Cal!” His wife yelled again “Try and be a little supportive.”

“I am…”

“What’s her name?” Jaiyang asked Daisy.

“Jemma Simmons.”

The line went quiet.

“Mom? Dad?” Daisy asked, worried she lost them.

“I’m sorry, did you say ‘Jemma Simmons?” Her mother responded “As in the actress, Jemma Simmons…”

“Funny…” Cal said. Daisy could hear the death glare her mom was giving him.

“Tell you what… Look up pictures from last night’s ‘Star Slayer 2” red carpet.”

She heard the noises of her parents fumbling with their phones to try to look up. Her dad got their first.

“Holy crap… That’s her?” She heard him ask.

“Oh… You two look adorable together.” Her mother added.

“Thank you, Mrs. Johnson…” Jemma yelled into the phone.

“Young Lady, you take good care of our daughter.” Cal told her.

“Oh… I will.” Jemma said, smiling.

Jemma’s phone started to ring, prompting Daisy to hang up on her parents, with a promise to call later. Jemma answered the phone, with Phil on the other end.

“Jemma, Mr. Barnes wants to see you in his office. Like, NOW”

“I’m already in the car with Daisy. I’ll turn around.”


	10. The house

Jemma and Daisy arrived at the studio and went right to Mr. Barnes’ office. Jemma sat in a chair in front of him, with Daisy standing behind her. “I’m right here.” Daisy whispered in Jemma’s ear.

The old man barely acknowledged their presence. After a few minutes; Andy, Drake and Alex came in. Phil was the last to arrive, standing by the door.

The group sat quietly for a few minutes.

“I have NEVER been so disappointed in someone in ALL MY LIFE!” Mr. Barnes suddenly yelled loudly.

“You two are in trouble…” Andy said with smug satisfaction towards his co-stars.

“Who on God’s Green Earth said I was talking to THEM?”

“Me, you’re disappointed in ME?” Andy asked in shock “Mr. Barnes… Please… I was just trying to help the movie…”

“Help the movie? Help the movie? Please explain how in this day and age, sexual harassment HELPS movies? Son… your actions are going to guarantee I’m going to LOSE money on this endeavor. YOU are FIRED! GET OUT! Alex?”

“Yes Mr. Barnes, do you want me to start finding a replacement?”

“No, I will, because you’re fired TWO!” the man yelled “You should have used better judgement. You went along with his little plan and it’s all over the tabloids now. You’re Fired…”

He turned towards Andy, who was still in shock “What the heck are you still doing here? What part of ‘GET THE FUCK OUT’ do you not understand?”

Mr. Barnes looked up at Phil.

“Mr. Coulson, if you’d be so kind to remove these two from the premises…”

Alex walked out in a huff while security had to be called for Andy, Phil having a hard time controlling the man.

“Mr. Porter…” Mr. Barnes began, now looking at Drake.

“I’ll go clear out my trailer, sir.”

“Now just a minute. While I don’t apricate the fact you threatened to toss Andy off a balcony, I understand you were standing up for Miss Simmons and that I admire about you. You can go now.”

“Thank you, sir.” Drake said, nodding as he got up to leave.

“Miss Simmons… I’d like to officially apologize to you for the actions of the people working for me and for you and Miss Johnson having to view that outburst… If I’d have known Andy was going to try to… do something that despicable… I would have probably clocked him myself.”

“Thank you, sir.” Jemma said, as Daisy squeezed her shoulders.

“I have decided to put Star Slayer 3 on hold for the time being. Production resources will be redirected for a new project. You’re getting your own spin off film.”

“Sir… My own movie?” Jemma asked

The older man nodded, causing Jemma to jump out of her chair and hug Daisy.

“I’ll call your agent in a few hours and work out the details.”

Jemma nodded, and then turned to Daisy.

“Hear that, I’m going to need you around even more to keep my head on.”

The two smiled and headed out, finding Phil outside in the parking lot.

“You alright?” Jemma asked him

“seen worse.” He said “Congratulations. Both on the movie and on… well… this…” He said, motioning to the two of them.

Daisy went to get in the car while Jemma had a quick word with Phil.

After taking Daisy for breakfast, The pair made the journey back to Malibu.

Jemma pulled the car up to a large gate and pressed a button on her phone. The gate swung open, and Daisy couldn’t believe what she saw. The house was huge. The property was huge. It had a pool, a tennis court, a huge garage and a private access to the beach with a small beach house.

“Holy shit!” Daisy said. “This is all your’s?”

“Nope.” Jemma said, “It’s all ours.”

She parked the car in front of the door and lead Daisy inside. The main hall opened into a large living room with a fireplace. Daisy stood in the middle still in amazement.

“Well?”

“We need to go get my stuff, and my car.”

“One thing at a time.” Jemma said “First… you need to see our bedroom.”

“Our bedroom…” Daisy repeated, still in shock.

The room was also large, with a large, fourposter bed, another fireplace and an attached bathroom with a jacuzzi.

“I think I’m gonna like this…” Daisy said.

“Did you ever think you’d be sunning yourself on a private bit of sand in Malibu alongside your world-famous and extremely sexy celebrity girlfriend?” Jemma asked as they lay on lounge chairs next to each other.

“Nope…” Daisy said with a chuckle. Jemma reached out her hand and Daisy took it.

Jemma’s phone started ringing it was Phil again.

“Fudge biscuits… I knew I forgot something.” She said, sitting up to grab it and answer.

She only talked with him for a minute, but she had a smile on her face.

“Thanks Phil, see you later.” She said as she hung up.

“fudge biscuits?” Daisy asked after a few seconds “You were swearing like a sailor on that video.”

“Something my mother likes to say. Come on. I asked Phil to do me a favor and use a contact of his to snag us a reservation at an awesome new restaurant.”

“Cool.” Daisy said as she got up off the chair.

The two walked into the house and headed upstairs to get dressed to head out for dinner.

“You know… It’ll be faster if we shower together…” Jemma said as she pulled Daisy towards the bathroom.

“Will it?” Daisy said with her head cocked at an angle.

“Why don’t we find out…”


	11. The End

About half an hour later, the two walked out the bathroom, coming off their sexual high from their love making in the shower.

“That was the best sex I ever had…” Daisy said.

“really… well… that was my first time.” Jemma said. “Have you been with other girls before me?”

“A girl never eats pussy and tells…” Daisy said with a smile.

“now, let’s get ready… time for us to hit the town as the latest LGBT ‘it couple’.” Jemma said as she opened the closet door “I am going to get dressed up here, there is something for you downstairs.”

Daisy went down as she was told and found a rather pretty green dress hanging on the downstairs bathroom door with a matching pair of one-inch heels.

She held it up to herself and smiled.

She tossed it on and waited for Jemma to come down. It took a few minutes longer, but the other girl soon joined her in a similar dress in gold.

“God… You look gorgeous…” Daisy said

“You look even better…” Jemma told her back, giving her a peck on the cheek.

As the two were staring at each other, taking in each other’s beauty. there was a loud knocking on the front door.

“Who could that be…?” Jemma asked “Probably Phil with something for me to sign…”

“Hello?” she called as she opened the door.

BANG! BANG!

Jemma tumbled backwards, clutching her side. Daisy jumped to her, throwing herself next to Jemma, trying to pull her towards her.

“Jemma!” Daisy yelled. Jemma was bleeding from her side, moaning in pain.

“Talk to me Jemma… You’re going to be okay.”

“No… No she isn’t.” A voice said.

Andy was standing there, with a gun in his hands.

Daisy realized the worst had happened.

Andy had just shot Jemma.

“Hope you’re happy BITCH…” He yelled at her as she began to cough up blood “Couldn’t put out for me just a little bit. Now I’m fired. No one wants anything to do with me. Kelly dumped me. The feds want to deport me. I’m not going back to that worthless fucking town in the middle of nowhere! You cost me my chance… now I’m taking yours.”

He held his gun up and fired again. He hit Jemma right in her head. The blood splattered went everywhere as Jemma went limp in Daisy’s arms…

“Jemma! JEMMA!” Daisy cried, but it was no use.

Jemma was dead.

“No… No…” Daisy screamed and sobbed as she held her girlfriend’s lifeless body “Jemma… Jemma please… god No… no…”

“That’s what you deserve…” he spat at her before turning to Daisy “And as for you… None of this would have had to happen if YOU hadn’t been in the picture… this is ALL your fault.”

He pointed the gun at her

“No… Please no… Please…” Daisy begged. “I’ll do whatever you want. Please… just let me go…”

But he ignored her, and fired twice, right into the center of her chest. He looked at his handy work and began to laugh…

As she lay on the floor, cradling the body of her lover and as her damaged heart beat it’s last… she heard something, over the sound of Andy’s laughing. It sounded like… a loud voice calling out… calling her name… Then a second, even louder voice joined it. It sounded like a computer talking… almost yelling…

“ _TIME! REALITY! MIND! POWER! FUSIONINFINITY! OVERFINAL_ **_BLAST!!!_** ”

A loud CRACK! echoed around them. It was followed by a loud whistle, like rushing wind. It came over them… And as her life gave out… everything went white…


	12. The End?

“Who could that be…? Jemma asked. “Probably Phil with something for me to sign…”

“Hello?” she called as she opened the door, but no one was there. “probably some kid…”

Daisy stood still. She looked over he hands… no blood. She felt her chest… no wounds… Was it a dream? Was anything real? She pinched herself… Pain… she was awake… alive … She saw Jemma standing at the door. She wasn’t it pain. She wasn’t on the floor. And there was no sign of Andy anywhere. Daisy felt her heart race as she tried to figure out what had just happened to her.

One second she’d been on the floor, breathing her last, the next, it was like it had never even happened.

“That’s strange…” Jemma muttered, looking back and forth before she suddenly felt herself get tackled from behind by Daisy.

“Ooh…” Jemma said, even more surprised. “What brought this on…”

“I don’t know… Daisy said, trying to hide her confusion “It just feels right.”

“Well. I like it… but we need to get going.”

The two women got into Jemma’s car and headed for the restaurant, not seeing the figure in black standing on the roof of their garage.

The figure watched as they couple drove off turned and looked at its handy work.

“Now… what do I do with you?” It asked, looking down at Andy, lying on the ground in pain.

It’s eyes flashed through several colors before it touched part of its body and placed it’s hand right on top of Andy’s face

“ _SOUL! FUSIONINFINITY! OVERFINAL **IMPACT**!!!_”

Andy began to scream...

Jemma and Daisy were looking over the restaurant menu.

“Wow… this place is expensive.” Daisy said as she looked around. Even in her nice dress she felt like she was barely qualifying for the dress code.

“Daisy… I think by this point you would have realized that’s going to be a relative term for you from now.” Jemma said with a smile. “Besides, you’d be amazed what gets comped in these places.”

They went back to studying the menu. “I just need to use the ladies room… Be right back.” Jemma said after a few more minutes.

“yeah, sure…” Daisy said as she was sill looking over the menu. After a little while longer, she flagged down a waiter nearby to ask them a question when, just as he was getting to their table, he stopped moving, frozen in place. Daisy looked around; the entire restaurant was frozen. No one moved. She looked out the window, the cars in the street were stopped.

“Hello Daisy.”

“Holy Fuck!” She yelled as she turned to see Phil sitting across from her. “Phil? What the hell is going on? Why isn’t anyone moving?”

“Well, what’s going on is I came to say goodbye.”

“Goodbye?” Daisy asked, still looking around at the room full of people not moving an inch.

“Yeah. Just… I need to go home.”

“This… are you doing this?” She asked in a panic.

“Oh, right. Yeah, in a manner of speaking. Our timeframe is accelerated. It only appears like they’re not moving because we’re the ones moving really fast.”

Daisy shifted in her seat.

“Oh God… I must be losing my mind…” She said “I’m probably still lying in the house, probably bleeding out from Andy shooting me… This is all a dream as my brain shuts off.”

“Oh, no, don’t worry about that.” He said like it was nothing “you already died from that…”


	13. The Truth

“Wait… WHAT?” Daisy Screamed “I died?”

“…But, like I said, don’t worry about it, I fixed it.”

“Don’t worry? DON’T WORRY? YOU JUST TOLD ME I’M DEAD AND YOU DON’T WANT ME TO WORRY ABOUT IT? I’M DEAD!”

“No… I said you _died_ …” he pointed out “There’s a difference.”

“WHAT FUCKING DIFFRENCE DOES IT MAKE?” She continued screaming at him

“Well, one’s past tense and the other…” He said, but she just gritted her teeth and growled at him…

“I WANT A STRAIGHT ANSWER AND I WANT IT NOW!”

He took a deep breath.

“Alright… alright… I’ll explain everything. Just stop screaming, my ears are gonna be ringing for days…”

She gave him a death glare.

“Okay… That necklace Jemma has… It’s not just a necklace. The large stone is actually a piece of technology.”

“And you know this because?”

He held up the necklace “I was sent to this reality to get it. The man who made it wants it back and I owe him a lot. It’s actually an interdimensional transporter device… I have one built into my watch…”

“you’re from another dimension?”

He nodded and continued.

“The plan was for you two to go to dinner, Andy would break into your house, I would sneak back in, steal the necklace and trip the alarm so he’d take the blame.”

“But we got… distracted in the shower…” Daisy said.

“And I wasn’t expecting that fucking idiot to have a gun on him. So, when I realized he was going to kill you… I had to break my cover.”

“What Cover?”

“My name isn’t Phil Coulson, that’s my boss’s name. My name is Scott Riley, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., official code name: _Iron Rider_. I prefer ‘ _Kamen Rider Victory’_ , but that’s a bit into iffy territory. Anyway… Before I could get to you, he opened fire, so I had no choice but to break out the big gun… this one.”

Phil… Scott reached under the table and pulled out a massive handgun that made a heavy thud as he det it down.

“This little sucker...”

“Little?” She asked. The gun looked to weight 10 pounds and had the word “RideMagnum” printed on the side.

“can tap into the energy and power in my suit... aside from the 20-round magazine.”

He put his phone down on the table and tapped the screen. A small hologram of him rose out of the phone, and in a few seconds, was wearing a suit of Silver and Golden armor.

“I have access to something… It’s long and complicated, but if certain conditions are met… I can do a few… unique things. Today, I was able to rewind time back about 60 seconds, just long enough to tackle that pervert and beat the shit out of him. I planted the evidence I needed and dumped him in an alleyway near a pawnshop in East Los Angeles. He’s going to be out of it for quite a while. I also wiped Jemma’s memories. Her mind was already in a fragile state.”

“Fragile?”

“Jemma… was on the verge of a psychotic break. Meeting you was exactly what she needed… so, I made it happen.”

“How’d you know…” She asked as he got up.

“Remember when I told you about jumping between dimensions? Let’s just say you’re not the first Daisy Johnson I’ve ever met who’s been in a relationship with a Jemma Simmons”

He stood a few feet from her, making sure he had room.

“One last thing…” She asked, “Why do you always have sunglasses on?”

“Oh…” He said, taking them off “So people don’t see my eyes… the purple creeps them out.”

“Why do you have purple eyes?”

“I’m part alien.” He said, like it was nothing.

“See you…” He told her as he pressed a button on the screen of his watch and disappeared in a flash of blue light.

Time began to restart around her.

“Yes, Miss, how can I help?” the waiter asked.

“Oh… um… my guy isn’t back yet, and I really need some water, I’m just parched, could you get him, please?”

“Of course.”

Jemma came bouncing back with a smile.

“Hey you…” She said as she sat down. “Miss me?”

“You have no idea…” Daisy told her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I purposely chose to not list this story under the rest of my “Earth-199999Alpha” series to allow this to stand on its own to a degree.
> 
> The rest of the adventures of Agent Riley and the divergent canon I created is here,
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/series/1191670


	14. The Secret

The blue glow around Scott faded and he was standing in the large receiving room.

“Howard? I got it? You here?” Scott called.

Part of the wall dissolved and an elderly gentleman in a plastic, floating chair approached him

“I’m impressed on that one, Scott…” The man said as Scott handed him the necklace.

“One Stark 4398.” Scott told him “What’s my offset?”

“difference of only three days…” Howard said.

“Long weekend… I can live with that.”

“I’ll put this away and have you sent back to your world.” The older man told him “You know… if you ever get tired of saving the multiverse, you might have a future as a matchmaker…”

He floated away and the wall sealed itself. The room began to glow blue until Scott found himself standing in his apartment.

“Honey? You home?” Scott called as he looked around.

“I’m in the shower… be out in a second babe.” He heard his wife called back.

“No rush, just wondering.” He told her as he went into the bedroom and made for the safe.

“Okay, you six have had your fun, time to go back in the safe for now.” Scott said, pulling a small disk from his pocket. Inside, six points of light flew around and around in various directions, almost as if the disk had depth to it. He pulled the false back of the safe off and placed the disk against the back wall before reattaching the cover.

“I’m getting so sick and tired of having to keep you guys a secret… Stupid Uatu…”

“ _I heard that!_ ” A voice echoed in the room.

He quickly closed the safe and walked over to the corner of the room as his wife came in. All she saw was him checking on their sleeping baby daughter.

“Hey Scott.” Daisy said as she stood next to him, smiling down at Toni. “You find that Stark Device?”

“Yep… High number model, too… One of the infiltration types. And you wouldn’t _believe_ who had this one…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The answer to "what that disk is and why Scott has it" is part of stories I should have had finished by now, but didn't get to yet.
> 
> I have spent the better part of the last year, every day, caring for a sick family member. It has eaten up my time tremendously. I have only really sat down and started writing again regularly within the last two weeks. I chose this story as it had the most complete narrative structure to put out.
> 
> (Edit: that particular family member, my grandfather, has now passed away...)
> 
> The setting of this story is a few weeks after the events of “The Black Mist” from Scott’s perspective, late spring, early summer 2020.
> 
> A few details on this story: to try to at least keep a vague connection to the fact this world is still Marvel, Mr. Barnes, the studio chief, is the son of Bucky and is named after his Uncle Steve, who remained the scrawny man he was at the start.
> 
> The decided on point of divergence is all the way back to Hive, who the people found a way to kill instead of banishing him. No Hive-> no Hydra-> no SHIELD-> no need for any superheroes.
> 
> The producer who was working the shoot at the coffee shop was a "recurring" OC, Paul Carter. I say recurring because the different times he's show up are different "dopples", this being the third by publishing order
> 
> "Dopple" is short for "Doppelgänger" and is used within my stories as the term for alternate universe counterparts, sometime shortened even further just to "Dop".

**Author's Note:**

> This story has been on my backburner for AGES, almost since the beginning in 2018. Well, at least the core idea: a nobody Daisy enters into a relationship with a famous Jemma, helped along by some random guy who turns out to be my OC, Agent Scott Riley, trying to steal a Stark Device, the interdimensional transporter devices that are the backbone of my stories.
> 
> I rewrote the ending four times in the last week to try to cut down the info dump. It was only on this last go around I decided to make Andy so irredeemable he'd stoop to murdering the two of them, requiring me choose to reveal something about Scott. That Disk will be explained in an upcoming story.


End file.
